The present invention relates to an automobile sun visor and more particularly a sun visor having a fabric and/or leather covering.
Automobile sun visors with a metallic structural member of a rectangular form and a sun visor body formed on the structural member by foamed polyurethane are very well known. The final contour of the so-formed sun visor, which is also basically rectangular, mates with the pertinent configuration of the interior of the automobile passenger compartment. These sun visors may comprise, like other visors structured in a different way, the so-called vanity mirror for the passenger side sun visor.
Sun visors are also known in general to include means for their attachment to a bracket member attached to the automobile structure, around the corresponding pivot pin of the bracket member so that the sun visor may occupy any position selected by the user among the regular positions of use. Apart from the pivot means, the sun visors also generally include a hanging bridge disposed in the end opposite to that occupied by the pivot means. The hanging bridge may engage a support member attached to the automobile structure so that, once the hanging bridge is engaged with the support member, under certain conditions they prevent the sun visor support pivot means from being subjected to mechanical overloads which could affect the operation thereof and, more precisely, the positional stability thereof.
The above described sun visors also have an external sheath like covering which consists generally of a covering of the sun visor body with a plastics material such as polypropylene. The purpose of this covering is to confer on the sun visor a surface finish in keeping with the internal finish of the automobile passenger compartment.
Where a very high quality level of the sun visor finish is requirable, the above described plastics material covering is inappropriate in view of the very notable difference of texture to be observed between the plastics material and the fabric and/or leather material used in these cases as covering for the vehicle passenger compartment.
The problems arising for providing a sunvisor of the above described type with an external covering using a woven material or leather are also known. Such problems are mainly to provide such fabric or leather covering with an external finish in which the sewn seams .of the constituent parts may not be perceived either by sight or by touch. In this respect, U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,095 discloses a sun visor having a woven material sheath and a method for the manufacture thereof. The said U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,095 describes a sun visor provided with a woven covering consisting of a sheath of essentially rectangular profile and having the perimeter closed by sewing in which the seam is completely on the inside. The interior of the sheath is accessible, for housing the sun visor body, through an opening formed for such purpose in one of the longer sides of the sheath.
The main drawbacks of the sun visor described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,095 are the following: the opening through which the sun visor body is inserted in the sheath is of necessity very large and, once the sun visor body is housed in the sheath, the opening must be covered or concealed with an additional member such as may be the vanity mirror itself. Also there is the need to cover or conceal the sheath opening in both sun visors normally fitted to automobiles, i.e., the driver's side sun visor and the passenger's side sun visor which, obviously, makes the production cost of the sun visors more expensive.